Major Moves · Career Moves
Relocation Cost Planner
Is moving to a new city actually worth it?
How This Calculator Works
This calculator compares two futures side by side: staying where you are versus moving, both projected forward on the same timeline so you can see which one leaves you wealthier. It starts with the most visible number — the difference between your current salary and the salary you'd earn after the move — and nets that against the difference in your monthly cost of living. Cost of living isn't just rent; it's every recurring expense that shifts when you change cities, entered as a single "new monthly expenses" figure so you can incorporate your own research on housing, groceries, insurance, and taxes for the destination.
From there it works out a break-even timeline: given your one-time moving costs (movers, deposits, travel, temporary housing) and your new monthly net gain or loss, how many months does it take before the move has paid for itself? If the new city costs more than it pays, relative to the old one, the calculator will tell you honestly that there's no break-even point rather than forcing a number.
Finally, it projects both paths — stay and move — years into the future, assuming you invest whatever monthly surplus each path leaves you at a steady annual return. This turns "is the raise worth it" into "which path leaves more total wealth by year 5 or year 10," which is usually the more useful question, especially when a smaller raise in a much cheaper city can out-earn a bigger raise in an expensive one.
What it does not do: it does not look up cost-of-living data for you, estimate state tax differences automatically, or account for one-time relocation-specific costs like breaking a lease or selling a home — those inputs are yours to bring, based on your own research into the destination.
Worked Example
Say you're making $95,000/year in your current city with monthly expenses of about $4,200, and you're offered a job paying $108,000/year in a new city where your researched monthly expenses (rent, groceries, insurance, etc.) would run closer to $4,900. That's a $13,000 annual salary increase against an $8,400 annual increase in costs — a net gain of roughly $4,600/year, or about $383/month. If the move itself (movers, deposit, travel) costs $6,000, it would take a little over 15 months of that net gain to recover the moving costs.
Projected forward, the calculator would then show you both paths compounding: your current-city savings rate invested at your assumed return versus your new-city savings rate (net of the higher costs) invested the same way. In this illustrative example, the modest monthly surplus from the move adds up slowly at first, but by year 5 or so the higher base salary typically pulls ahead of the "stay" path — the calculator shows you exactly where those two lines cross for your own numbers, rather than assuming it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I estimate cost-of-living differences between cities?
The calculator asks for your new monthly expenses as a single input, so you'll want to research this yourself before you start. Look at comparable rent or mortgage costs in the specific neighborhoods you'd actually live in (not city-wide averages, which can be misleading), plus groceries, utilities, insurance premiums, and any commute costs that would change. Several cost-of-living comparison sites can give you a starting multiplier, but local rental listings and grocery delivery apps for the destination city often give a more accurate, current picture than a generic index.
Does this account for state or local income tax differences?
Not automatically — the calculator works from the salary and expense numbers you enter, so if your destination has a different state income tax rate (or no state income tax at all), you should factor that into the salary or expense figure you use. A simple approach is to estimate your take-home pay in each location separately and use those after-tax numbers as your "salary" inputs instead of gross salary, since take-home pay is what actually funds your monthly expenses and savings.
What counts as a 'moving cost' in this calculator?
Moving costs should capture every one-time expense tied to the move itself: movers or truck rental, security deposits or down payment differences, temporary housing, flights or driving costs, any lease-break penalties at your current place, and incidental costs like new furniture for a different-sized home. It's worth padding this estimate — moves reliably cost more than the first quote suggests.
What if I'm not sure what salary I'd actually be offered?
Run the numbers a few times with different plausible offers — a conservative one, a realistic one, and an optimistic one — to see how sensitive the break-even timeline and long-term wealth gap are to the exact salary. If the move only makes sense at the high end of your expected offer range, that's useful information to have before you negotiate.
Does a higher salary always win over the long run?
Not necessarily. Because the calculator projects both paths with your monthly surplus invested at a set return, a smaller raise paired with a much lower cost of living can build more long-term wealth than a bigger raise eaten up by higher rent and expenses. That's the main reason to run the full projection instead of just comparing the two salary numbers directly.